1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system wireless communication, and more particularly to selecting an information handling system communication protocol based on network constraints.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Portable information handling systems and wireless telephones have converged into “smartphone” devices that perform functions traditionally associated with both telephone communications and information processing. A typical smartphone includes a processor and a display with a touchscreen that accepts inputs from an end user. An end user places telephone calls through a wireless interface by inputting a telephone number or answering an incoming telephone call indication through the touchscreen. The end user also uses the touchscreen to perform email and web browsing by interacting with applications through the touchscreen.
Initially, mobile wireless telephones interacted with a wireless wide area network (WWAN) primarily to communicate voice information through telephone calls. Mobile wireless telephones made telephone calls through the WWAN with traditional circuits. End users typically purchased telephone plans from network providers that gave the user a certain number of minutes of talking time per billing period, such as monthly. As mobile telephones became “smarter” by including web browsing and email functions, end users would receive a quantity of data to download and upload per billing period in addition to minutes of talking time. The introduction of data transfer by Internet Protocol (IP) made telephone calls with Voice over IP VoIP) possible by sending voice as data. Generally, mobile telephones initially transferred data through the WWAN at slow rates that did not strain network data capabilities; however, as mobile telephone processing and communication components have improved, data transfer has increased to a point at which many network providers have reached the capacity of wireless networks. For example, end users often send pictures and movies taken by cameras integrated in the mobile telephone as attachments to emails and text messages. Transfer of audiovisual information tends to consume an end user's data allocation even where the end user may have “talk” minutes remaining.
One solution that helps to conserve a mobile telephone data allocation is to transfer data when possible through a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface with the mobile telephone. To accomplish this, many mobile telephones includes an 802.11(g), (n) or other WLAN interface that automatically connects to available networks to send data so that WWAN data allocations are not consumed. In some instances, WLAN interfaces are used to also support telephone communications by establishing a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) interface through the Internet with a WLAN interface. As an example, an enterprise might include a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server that assigns end users a telephone number for establishing VoIP telephone calls through a WLAN interface to a mobile telephone. An end user makes and receives telephone calls through the VoIP telephone number at a mobile telephone using an Internet interface with the SIP server and also makes and receives telephone calls at the mobile telephone with a primary telephone number that access the telephony network through the WWAN of a telephone network provider. A difficulty of this is that a VoIP telephone call that sends voice communication through the Internet typically consumes an end user's data allocation if the Internet interface is established through a WWAN instead of a WLAN.